It’s generally accepted that sports games don’t change much from year to year, as it becomes quite difficult to iterate on a real sport after more than 20 years. However, there is always room for improvement and finding ways to please your players and NBA 2K23 is an example, even if it is not perfect. He’s got a lot of baggage, but when he gets it right, he helps solidify a pretty valuable package.
To start, NBA 2K23 is probably the least forgiving 2K game in recent memory and while some people might see that as a negative, it’s a valid attempt to change things up. All too often in NBA 2K22 could you be extremely lucky and drain a shot when you shouldn’t have or sink the ball without being legitimately destroyed. While that hasn’t completely gone away from this year’s entry, the focus is on skill rather than luck. 2K23The hit counter has been refined so that you need to green each hit for it to enter. There are exceptions to this, but the overwhelming majority of shots the player takes must be absolutely perfect or it will bounce off the edge. This level of precision can be frustrating, but helps you hone your craft instead of taking every hit. He wants you to be good and not just rely on luck. If you know you’re not going to put it green, the game wants you to pass to a teammate.
Anyone who has abused the game’s mechanics in recent years will legitimately have a hard time NBA 2K23 and I speak from experience. However, it also highlights one of 2K’s longstanding and most glaring flaws: microtransactions. That’s about as profitable as a big AAA game that charges players an entry fee of $69.99. On day one, there were players in online modes such as Rec who had overall stats in the 80s and 90s. This is because you can buy in-game currency to upgrade your character, make it faster, better shooters or dunkers, top defenders, etc. It’s like letting a college basketball player buy PEDs that make him worthy of being an NBA 2K cover athlete on his first day in the league.
When you start out, your character has an overall rating somewhere in the 60s, which puts you at a huge disadvantage when playing against those who buy a ton of VC. Some versions of the game even give players a bunch of VC, granting them a drastic boost just because they could afford to spend more. The version of the game I reviewed had over 100,000 VC and when I started injecting it into my character, I could notice a significant difference in performance. I split my time between the Xbox Series X and Xbox One versions of the game, which share VC, and poured most of the VC into the Series X version. “, it was overwhelming.
It creates a frustrating experience that makes you not want to play. Your choices for coping are to grind the game or drop wads of cash into an already expensive game that only has a shelf life of around 12 months. It doesn’t really seem fair and it needs to change. Of course, if you don’t play MyCareer, it probably won’t affect you as much.
There are plenty of other modes you can play without microtransactions. NBA 2K23 is one of the most comprehensive games in the series with a great story mode, various online modes, a fleshed out version of MyTeam worth exploring, and much more. One of the highlights of NBA 2K23 are the Jordan Challenges that allow you to revisit pivotal moments in Michael Jordan’s career. These challenges are complete with era-specific filters, broadcast graphics, animations that reflect Michael Jordan’s iconic gestures, and various sports personalities quizzed on why this moment was important to Jordan’s career. Gameplay-wise, it’s largely a normal basketball game with a few challenges (score X number of points, get X number of assists) that earn you stars for rewards . It’s a well-done mode with a high level of detail that serves as a fun distraction from the rest of the game.
As for MyCareer’s story mode, depending on your platform, it’s either the most boring thing this game has done, or just fine. On Xbox One/PS4 you can largely just spam the A/X button to skip cutscenes and dialogue choices and enter the game. Not a ton is wasted doing this, but if you want to watch the he story is very simplified and presented in a tolerable way. On the current version, it’s the most cumbersome thing I’ve ever seen in a sports game. There’s a giant open world called The City filled with quests, shops, and other things to discover. On paper, it’s cool to have such an environment to walk around in. In execution, it is appalling. Your character is slow despite being a basketball player who runs around the court for a living and the skateboard he provides to speed up mobility is stiff and dull.
You can earn things like go-karts which are faster, but the lack of such a vehicle can make things hellish in the early morning. There are way too many RPGs in this basketball game. You run around town talking to agents, the press, managers, coaches, marketers, and fans more than you play basketball. A lot of it is also mandatory, which means you can’t just ignore it. It’s exhausting and makes the aforementioned grind to make your character worthy of online game rivalry a nightmare. Given that it’s about that or buying microtransactions, it can annoy a lot of players.
NBA 2K23 is mired in a lot of problems thanks to predatory monetization and overzealous RPG gameplay taking precedence over actual basketball, but it has some great qualities too. There’s plenty of content ensuring there’s something for everyone to play and the game leans into its simulation aspects in a risky but effective way. If the series can refine those good qualities and leave behind its outdated monetization schemes, 2K could earn another level of respect and become something beyond other sports games.
Rating: 3 out of 5
A review code for NBA 2K23 was provided for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. This review was primarily conducted on Xbox Series X.
It’s generally accepted that sports games don’t change much from year to year, as it becomes quite difficult to iterate on a real sport after more than 20 years. However, there is always room for improvement and finding ways to please your players and NBA 2K23 is an example, even if it is not perfect. He’s got a lot of baggage, but when he gets it right, he helps solidify a pretty valuable package.
To start, NBA 2K23 is probably the least forgiving 2K game in recent memory and while some people might see that as a negative, it’s a valid attempt to change things up. All too often in NBA 2K22 could you be extremely lucky and drain a shot when you shouldn’t have or sink the ball without being legitimately destroyed. While that hasn’t completely gone away from this year’s entry, the focus is on skill rather than luck. 2K23The hit counter has been refined so that you need to green each hit for it to enter. There are exceptions to this, but the overwhelming majority of shots the player takes must be absolutely perfect or it will bounce off the edge. This level of precision can be frustrating, but helps you hone your craft instead of taking every hit. He wants you to be good and not just rely on luck. If you know you’re not going to put it green, the game wants you to pass to a teammate.
Anyone who has abused the game’s mechanics in recent years will legitimately have a hard time NBA 2K23 and I speak from experience. However, it also highlights one of 2K’s longstanding and most glaring flaws: microtransactions. That’s about as profitable as a big AAA game that charges players an entry fee of $69.99. On day one, there were players in online modes such as Rec who had overall stats in the 80s and 90s. This is because you can buy in-game currency to upgrade your character, make it faster, better shooters or dunkers, top defenders, etc. It’s like letting a college basketball player buy PEDs that make him worthy of being an NBA 2K cover athlete on his first day in the league.
When you start out, your character has an overall rating somewhere in the 60s, which puts you at a huge disadvantage when playing against those who buy a ton of VC. Some versions of the game even give players a bunch of VC, granting them a drastic boost just because they could afford to spend more. The version of the game I reviewed had over 100,000 VC and when I started injecting it into my character, I could notice a significant difference in performance. I split my time between the Xbox Series X and Xbox One versions of the game, which share VC, and poured most of the VC into the Series X version. “, it was overwhelming.
It creates a frustrating experience that makes you not want to play. Your choices for coping are to grind the game or drop wads of cash into an already expensive game that only has a shelf life of around 12 months. It doesn’t really seem fair and it needs to change. Of course, if you don’t play MyCareer, it probably won’t affect you as much.
There are plenty of other modes you can play without microtransactions. NBA 2K23 is one of the most comprehensive games in the series with a great story mode, various online modes, a fleshed out version of MyTeam worth exploring, and much more. One of the highlights of NBA 2K23 are the Jordan Challenges that allow you to revisit pivotal moments in Michael Jordan’s career. These challenges are complete with era-specific filters, broadcast graphics, animations that reflect Michael Jordan’s iconic gestures, and various sports personalities quizzed on why this moment was important to Jordan’s career. Gameplay-wise, it’s largely a normal basketball game with a few challenges (score X number of points, get X number of assists) that earn you stars for rewards . It’s a well-done mode with a high level of detail that serves as a fun distraction from the rest of the game.
As for MyCareer’s story mode, depending on your platform, it’s either the most boring thing this game has done, or just fine. On Xbox One/PS4 you can largely just spam the A/X button to skip cutscenes and dialogue choices and enter the game. Not a ton is wasted doing this, but if you want to watch the he story is very simplified and presented in a tolerable way. On the current version, it’s the most cumbersome thing I’ve ever seen in a sports game. There’s a giant open world called The City filled with quests, shops, and other things to discover. On paper, it’s cool to have such an environment to walk around in. In execution, it is appalling. Your character is slow despite being a basketball player who runs around the court for a living and the skateboard he provides to speed up mobility is stiff and dull.
You can earn things like go-karts which are faster, but the lack of such a vehicle can make things hellish in the early morning. There are way too many RPGs in this basketball game. You run around town talking to agents, the press, managers, coaches, marketers, and fans more than you play basketball. A lot of it is also mandatory, which means you can’t just ignore it. It’s exhausting and makes the aforementioned grind to make your character worthy of online game rivalry a nightmare. Given that it’s about that or buying microtransactions, it can annoy a lot of players.
NBA 2K23 is mired in a lot of problems thanks to predatory monetization and overzealous RPG gameplay taking precedence over actual basketball, but it has some great qualities too. There’s plenty of content ensuring there’s something for everyone to play and the game leans into its simulation aspects in a risky but effective way. If the series can refine those good qualities and leave behind its outdated monetization schemes, 2K could earn another level of respect and become something beyond other sports games.
Rating: 3 out of 5
A review code for NBA 2K23 was provided for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. This review was primarily conducted on Xbox Series X.